Mike Dobrzelecki has sent us some pictures and a description of a model he built of the Polish Ford FT-B (Tfc) Armored Car. It’s a nicely done model of a rather rare and unusual vehicle.

Description:

Polish Ford FT-B (Tfc) Armored Car 1/35th Scale

By Mike Dobrzelecki

Designed in 1920 by Tadeusz Tanski the Ford FT-B (tfc) was based on the classic Ford Model T chassis. He used plates made from German trench armor scrounged from Polish battlefields and filled the tires with wood pulp to protect them to a certain degree against rifle and machine gun bullets (probably a rough ride). The Ford FT-B was the first Polish armored vehicle built in series, with between 16 and 17 completed, depending on whose information you believe. All of the other armored vehicles in Polish service were either WWI vehicles captured from the Russians (Austin Pulitov Armored Cars, amongst others), Imperial German forces (Ehrhard Armored Cars, amongst others), Austrians, furnished as war material by the French Government (Renault FT-17’s, amongst others), or one-off armored conversions of civilian vehicles. The Ford FT-B acquitted itself well during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920 excelling in the highly mobile combat, which characterized that conflict, so unlike the static trench warfare of WWI. The Ford distinguished itself particularly in “The Raid on Kovel” and saved many a Polish kiester during the retreat from the Ukraine back to Warsaw. It them supported the counter-attack eastward, after the successful defense of Warsaw, known as “Miracle on the Wistula” (Wisla River in Polish), where Sikorski defeated the Reds, routing them in the process and sending [Read more…]

Today we present an original article written by Matt Dedrick titled “Reading Between the Lines: Estimating Tiger Tank Production.” Mr. Dedrick has spent a good deal of time wrestling with the topic of Tiger tank production during WW2, particularly the effects on Tiger 1 production caused by the strategic bombing of Kassel on October 22,23, 1943.

Excerpt:

This is the first of a series of articles intended to explore the effects on Tiger 1 production caused by the Royal Air Forces’s area fire-bombing of the medieval City of Kassel on the night of October 22,23, 1943. Though the bombing of Kassel was regarded by Henschel management and the Heereswaffenamt to have been the singular event most affecting Tiger 1 production, it has been virtually ignored in the available literature As a result, the production of Tiger 1 tanks during the four months following the bombing of Kassel has been poorly understood by modellers and tank historians alike.
Most of the data and documents on Tiger 1 production was lost during the war. Much of what is available has been researched, interpreted and published in the many books compiled by those two remarkable research-historians, the late Mr. Tom Jentz and the late Mr. Walter Spielberger The data found in their books has been largely based on Henschel monthly production statistics, wartime documents, minutes from the Heereswaffenamt /Henschel meetings, post war interviews, photographs as well as the data found in the various army manuals, journals and publications.

A Tank and AFV News reader from Italy has submitted some interesting pictures of some Sexton SPGs used as range targets in Italy. These vehicles differ from standard Sexton SPGs in that they were re-armed with the 105mm Obice da 105/22 gun (but still retaining the original 25 pounder gun recoil system.) These two wrecks are located at Cape Teulada, at the Italian Army training range. The reader who submitted the pictures states that he and two others of the 1st Regiment were ordered to select 14 vehicles from the Italian army armor storage area at Lenta in November of 1986 to be transported to the firing range. Of the 14 Sexton SPGs that were selected, one was retained as a monument at the barracks while the others were used as range targets. (This information was sent to us written in Italian, we have translated it as best as possible using Google translate.)